According to information reaching us all new Dialog TV subscribers are receiving the new HD PVR enabled MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top box. However if they want to activate any of the HD sachets they will still have to pay Rs 2990/= one time start-up fee which has been presently waived for "Gold" package subscribers.
This will mean that Dialog TV is setting itself up probably for converting more channels to MPEG4 DVB-S2 in the future and unconfirmed reports indicate that MTV India will be back on the Dialog TV lineup before the end of the year.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that some existing subscribers who are not on the "Gold" package have been reportedly been receiving some MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top boxes but not the PVR enabled box rather one that doesn't have a LED display. Probably a lower cost box.
Dialog TV did issue a trial viewing of the HD pack for 14 days commencing from the end of September/beginning of October and this trial comes to a end over the next few days. It will be interesting to see how many will actually retain the HD pack after the trial run. This trial seems to have coincided with the issuing of MPEG4 DVB-S2 set-top boxes for new subscribers & is a good offer on the part of Dialog TV.
On other news over this weekend Star Sports 2 replaced ESPN to accommodate Formula 1 on Saturday and Sunday for a few hours. The case to include Star Sports 2 to the Dialog TV lineup is growing stronger than ever & of course the lack of transponder capacity weighs heavily on Dialog TV.
It seems that we might have a few more channels taking to MPEG4 DVB-S2 before the year comes to a close, which of course is that time of the year when Dialog TV is generally naughty than nice. December has always been a controversial month with channel replacements and time sharing's been enforced, etc, etc. So hopefully this year round would be much different with increased capacity bringing in new channels and time sharing channels being allocated separate slots.
Dialog TV should refrain from adding new local FTA channels and should concentrate of making space for international channels.
Please keep us updated on the latest on Dialog TV as the days progress.